News

VW T2 campervan restoration

VW campervan Betty wasn’t always in the same pristine condition as you see her today. Seven years ago she was bought as a project and turned out there was quite a lot of work needing doing to her.

The work was carried out over a period of three years. In the first place she was carefully stripped down to bare metal. This was back breaking work but worth it in the end. Some metal was replaced and Betty was given two base coats of red lead. Then she was finished in her original factory colours - at some stage in her life she had been sprayed blue.

The interior was designed by specialist VW campervan outfit The Camper Shak. Her fitted units are in Furze Oak, including the cooker and sink units. You will find lots of nooks and crannies for storage all around the campervan. The ¾ rock and roll bed was designed to be really easy to put up (down?) and the seating is in a high quality vinyl which makes keeping the inside of the van clean whilst at the beach a lot easier. Betty was then fitted with three rear seat belts - two on the rock and roll bed and one on the rear facing single seat that houses the porta potty.

Whilst the mechanical aspects have replicated as near to as possible the original VW T2 bay spec the internals of the van have been designed with modern comfort in mind. There was in any case no original VW specification for the interior. These were all manufactured differently by the various specialist shops (Westfalia, Devon Moonraker, Dormobile etc). Betty’s interior layout sticks to her original Devon Moonraker design but the fittings are modern.

These fittings include LED lighting so as not to consume too much leisure battery as well as a fridge that runs off both battery and an electric hook up should one be available. There are also 3 pin electrical sockets for your appliances should you be plugged into an electrical hookup plus USB ports for mobile phone charging that work off both the hookup and the battery.

The flooring was provided by another specialist company called Madmatz.

The whole project took three years of painstaking effort. The upshot of all this work is a campervan that is almost like new but with far more comfort than the original 1971 version. We hope you will enjoy her.